Why I'm looking at Communism in a more positive light.

This is a long, rambling reply, so I hope you don't mind it.

Like you, I am an American. I grew up in a left-wing liberal, Democratic Party family, and many of my teachers were of that type as well. One thing about me that probably helped lead me to communism was that I have long been instinctively anti-imperialist. Even in the wake of 9/11, I could sense that charging into Afghanistan was a terrible idea, that it was almost certainly going to end badly and accomplish nothing but further wrecking an already-ravaged country. I felt the same way about the Iraq War; I didn't see the point in it, and I didn't believe the rationales that were being peddled for it.

I had considered myself a socialist off and on for a long time, but never in a very serious way. Looking back on it, at that time I didn't even really know what socialism was. Like many Americans, I thought it was what they have in Sweden and Finland and the like. Don't get me wrong, what they have in Sweden and Finland is a lot better than what we have here in America, but it's not socialism.

This trend of considering myself a socialist had started for me about ten years ago. I was increasingly dissatisfied with the Democratic Party and the direction the country and the world were taking. Part of my shift is down to Bernie Sanders. I actually became aware of him back in 2006, when he ran for and was elected senator. I distinctly remember saying to a friend at the time, "why can't we just elect him president?" in the context of the then-upcoming 2008 presidential elections; ten years later, I got my wish, although of course it didn't pan out.

Like I said, I had considered myself a socialist off and on for years prior to 2016. I wasn't very serious about it at all, though, and I really didn't understand anything about socialism (I still have a lot to learn, honestly). The financial crisis of 2008, the recession that followed, and the seemingly endless (and expanding) Global War on Terror made me increasingly disenchanted with the capitalist system and the US government. The exploitation, the way that regular people were getting screwed so a bunch of rich guys could make maximum profits, was becoming more obvious to me. But for all that, I didn't become radicalized at that time.

Really, I think that it was the 2016 election that radicalized me. Two years ago, I was still a left-wing liberal. I didn't like the effects of capitalism, but I wasn't yet willing to contemplate getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with something else. At that time, I was what we call a social democrat, or in American parlance, a New Deal liberal. At that time, I would have been satisfied with a New Deal Restoration, and that is more or less the platform that Bernie Sanders was running on. However, Bernie Sanders also calls himself a socialist, and I thought to myself that if I'm going to support a socialist, I really ought to learn more about this socialism thing.

Of course, Bernie Sanders didn't end up getting the Democratic Party's nomination for president. That was a bitter disappointment to me. I had heard a news item on the radio during the primary in which a Sanders supporter was interviewed, and the man was almost in tears, talking about how he thought Sanders was the last chance to get things right. At the time I cringed a little, and wanted to tell that guy to calm down, but in retrospect I think I felt much the same. I didn't exactly think that Bernie Sanders was the last chance we had to get things right, but in retrospect I think that Bernie Sanders was the last chance for me as far as being a Democrat goes, and also the last chance for solving the problems we face as a society within the existing system.

Starting about a year ago, I started reading radical and Marxist bloggers. They helped me sharpen my criticisms of the Democratic Party and the mainstream liberalism that I had been raised in. More recently, I've started getting into actual Marxist literature. I've started with Lenin, specifically "The State and Revolution." I haven't finished it yet (I really need to get back to it), but what I did read was eye-opening. Lenin was describing exactly the same kinds of things that are going on today: a political system by and for the bourgeoisie, for the people who stand at the top of society and who hold pieces of paper that say they own everything, and who can only stand at the top by being held up by those on the bottom. He described how the system is designed to work in their favor, how politicians do the bidding of the bourgeoisie and are then rewarded by the bourgeoisie with well-paid sinecures after they leave office.

As the Portuguese proverb has it, "same old shit, only the flies have changed." The same shit that was going on in Russia (and everywhere else) in 1917 is still going on today in 2017.

I'm glad that you were able to come to this decision, and chose not to join the Marines. Good luck to you in finding a new path. You are young, and there are options out there. Healthcare could be a good line, as could first response; there was a time when I aspired to be a firefighter, but I wound up deciding against it (I didn't think I would be able to handle the mental strain of it; this might not be a problem for you, though). Agriculture is a good line too, but my impression is that it can be difficult to get into; that said, it also seems like it can be a very rewarding profession. Depending on where you live, you might consider working some kind of a trade. Various labor unions have apprenticeship programs, so that might be something you could do.

I don't see myself as the one to spearhead a wave of revolution in communism either. I think there are better people than me to lead the struggle. I don't particularly like the thought of violent revolution either. However, an appraisal of history and the reading I have been doing has led me to the conclusion that, unfortunately, it is probably going to come to that, sooner or later whether we want it to or not.

I don't think he's a communist at all, but this guy makes a lot of good points about the essential nature of running a country and trying to make changes in that country. The recurring theme in all his points is that if we are interested in winning, in achieving anything in reality, then we will have to play rough. Our enemies are not going to play fair. They have never played fair against us. Whenever people like us have gained power, whether through elections or through revolution, our enemies have not just sat back and respected our victory. They have used every conceivable means to undermine and overthrow us and return themselves to undisputed power in order to keep on the gravy train of exploitation that they have been riding for generations. It's happened in Guatemala, Iran, Venezuela, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Burkina Faso, France, Italy, Greece, Brazil, Korea, Vietnam, and a ton of other places. Some of those countries were able to fend off these attempts to bring them down, but many more were not. I wish it didn't have to be this way, but it seems pretty certain, based on the experiences of the past, that there is going to be a fight over this sooner or later, and we have to go into it with the expectation that the other side won't play fair. We aren't brutes, but we will have to be ruthless in taking away their power and their ability to cause trouble.

Thank you for this thoughtful piece. Welcome to communism, friend and comrade. I am glad that this gigantic weight has been lifted from you.

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